Books By Pitigrilli, Alexander Stille - Author

Pitigrilli is the pseudonym for Dino Segre (1893--1975), an Italian writer who made his living as a journalist and novelist. Published in 1921, Cocaine is Pitigrilli's most lauded work and placed on the "forbidden books" list by the Catholic Church. He founded the literary magazine Grandi Firme, which was published in Turin from 1924 to 1938, when it was banned by anti-Semitic Race Laws of the Fascist government. Although baptized as a Catholic, Segre was classified as Jewish and worked in the 1930s as an informant for OVRA, the Fascist secret service. Pitigrilli's efforts, beginning in 1938, to change his racial status failed and he was interned as a Jew in 1940 and was released later that year. Michael R. Aldrich, Ph.D., is the author of the first doctoral dissertation on cannabis in the United States, Marijuana Myths and Folklore (1970); editor of the first pot 'zine, The Marijuana Review, 1968-1973; co-founder of Amorphia, The Cannabis Cooperative (1969--1973); organizer of California Marijuana Initiativ